Copper scrap reclassification to come into force in Mar or Q2

SHANGHAI, Nov 21 (SMM) – The long-anticipated reclassification of high-quality copper scrap as renewable resources is likely to kick in in March or the second quarter next year, helping ease tightness in raw material supply as Chinese authorities are sharply scaling back import quotas for copper scrap.

Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that China is drafting changes to standards for imports of Category-6 copper scrap, citing Jiwei Wang, secretary general of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association’s recycling metal branch.

The industry association said earlier this month that the standards for secondary copper and secondary aluminium raw materials are expected to come into force at the start of next year at the earliest or before Q2 at the latest.

The rollout of the standards will likely be later than the association had expected, as Xu Yuanfeng, vice president of trading of Jiangxi Copper, the largest copper producer in China, said the reclassification policy may start in “March, or Q2 at the latest,” according to Bloomberg’s report.

Scrap metal, including copper scrap, that meets the criteria under the reclassification policy will be no longer categorised as “solid wastes,” imports of which China aims to cut to zero by the end of 2020.

Lower-end of Category-6 scrap metal will remain subject to import quotas, which have been falling significantly, spurring concerns about raw material supply across the copper and aluminium industry.

In the face of scrap shortages, China’s appetite for copper and aluminium alloy ingots, ingots that scrap or secondary byproducts are melted into, has swelled in the recent months.

China’s imports of copper ingots in September contained nearly 9,000 mt of copper, up about 90% from a year ago, showed SMM data. Copper ingot imports have risen for three months in terms of Cu content.

In the same month, China imported 18,706 mt of unwrought aluminium alloy, the highest since SMM records began in January 2018. This was up 16.9% from a month ago and 140% from a year ago.